Report: Apple To Remove Secret App In Brazil

This week Brazilian prosecutors asked Judge Paolo Cesar de Carvalho to impose a ban on Secret, the slick anonymous broadcasting app and spiritual successor to Gossip Girl. Article 5, Section IV of Brazil's constitution plainly says while "expression of thought is free" for all citizens, "anonymity is forbidden." The laws are constructed in such a way that citizens have a chance to refute whoever is disparaging them, which means Secret and its ilk are technically breaking the law. (Although it's worth mentioning that its chief rival, Whisper, uses algorithms to filter posts that mention specific proper names unless they're already a public figure).

On Thursday, de Carvalho called on Apple and Google to remove Secret from their respective online marketplaces. But the injunction didn't stop there. The judge also asked that they delete Secret from all the phones within the country—which, yes, is something Apple and Google are capable of—and gave them 10 days to comply.

Now it looks like Apple is moving to remove Secret from the Brazilian App Store, reports 9to5 Mac, citing a source "close to the situation." Under section 22.1 of the App Store guidelines, all apps "must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users." Responsibility falls on the developers to "understand and conform to all local laws." So far there haven't been any reports of Secret being removed from iPhones remotely. But for the time being, it looks like Brazilians will need to get their rumor fix elsewhere.